Cliff Pickover's African Masks and the Quest for Transcendence

My interests include African masks, Tai Chi, Kung Fu, and Sushi. This
page
provides some information on each of these topics. The first installment
focuses on my collection of African masks.
Future additions will include Tai Chi and Sushi.

African Masks

Senufo Mask
From the collection of Cliff Pickover.
Photo copyright Cliff Pickover.
The Senufo are an artistic people
who live along the northernmost border
of the Ivory Coast
in western, sub-saharan Africa.

Through the ages, masks have varied in appearance and function.
Many masks are still associated with religious ceremonies
or are concerned with spirits of the dead, fertility rites, or
curing
sickness. Other masks are used on festive occasions to portray
mythological events.

Masks representing harmful spirits were often used to
keep a required balance of power. This
type of mask was often associated with secret societies, especially
in Africa, which has the greatest variety of masks on Earth!

Masks have also be used to discipline
women, children, and criminals. For example, in Africa, a mother
might
paint a scary face on the bottom of a water gourd to make sure the
child followed her directions. Along the Guinea coast of West
Africa,
many realistic masks represent ancestors; the masks symbolize
sanction control when worn. The Dan and Ngere tribes of Liberia and
Ivory Coast use ancestor masks as
intermediaries for the transmission of petitions or offerings of
respect to the gods.

The mask picture at the very bottom of this page is from the
Masai Tribe in Kenya, Africa. They smear themselves with chalk from a
sacred cliff to perform ritual dances. The stylized patterns
proclaim bravery in killing lions or enemy warriors. This inspired
the creation of carved, black, contour lines with white outlined
eyes and lips. The spiral on the chin symbolizes life's journey to
the center or self. The mask is made of terra cotta clay and glaze.

The Senufo are an artistic people
who live along the northernmost border
of the Ivory Coast
in western, sub-saharan Africa.
While the tribe as a whole earns its
livelihood from agriculture and livestock raising,
the Senufo have special castes for artists, who are highly respected.

There are a number of revered ancestor spirits among the Senufo.
Maleeo and Kolotyolo ("Ancient Mother" and "Creator God") represent a
dualistic deity. Kolotyolo is not approachable and can only be reached through
Yiriigifolo or Nyehene. The
Poro society is reserved primarily for men, although young girls and
postmenopausal women are permitted to join. The main function of Poro is to
guarantee a good relationship between the living world and the ancestors.

Divination, or
the art of predicting the future and gaining hidden knowledge,
plays a big role in the life of the Senufo people.
African divination is
discussed in my new book
Dreaming the Future.

While you are visiting, browse an image from my other interest -- my 110 gallon tropical
fish tank. Note the odd formation of three red
parrot fish towards the bottom. They appear to aligned as if part of some
crystal.

About the Mask Collector:Clifford A. Pickover received his Ph.D.
from Yale University and is the author of over twenty highly-acclaimed
books on such topics as computers and creativity, art, mathematics,
black holes, human behavior and intelligence, time travel, alien life,
and science fiction. Pickover is a prolific inventor with dozens of
patents, is the associate editor for several journals, and puzzle
contributor for magazines like Discover and Odyssey. The Los Angeles
Times recently wrote, "Pickover has published nearly a book a
year in which he stretches the limits of computers, art and thought."
Wired magazine wrote, "Bucky Fuller thought big, Arthur C. Clarke
thinks big, but Cliff Pickover outdoes them both." Pickover's
computer graphics have been featured on the cover of many popular
magazines and on TV shows. His web site, www.pickover.com, has
received over 400,000 visits.